Android Forum at DroidForums.net

Samsung have done a lot of things right over the years but one area that they needed to improve was with Touchwiz, it just come across as 'cartoony'. Apparently someone in Samsung agreed and actually revamped Touchwiz to a more visual appealing skin. Unfortunately it never made it to production but I for one would love to see Samsung bring this revamped Touchwiz to future devices, the Note 5 in particular.

Some new renders for the upcoming HTC One M9+ have hit the web. As you can see from the images, (one is above and both are in the thread below), it looks like the new phablet style device from HTC will take queues from their previous generation and the newer M9. It has the same Duo Camera setup in the back as the HTC One M8, yet includes the two-tone paint-job of the One M9.

It's still unclear whether the HTC One M9+ will debut in any region other than Asia, but the current scuttlebutt suggests it will. More than likely, the HTC One E Series will remain exclusive to China and perhaps other Asian markets, but the M9+ might spread into Europe and perhaps even North America.

Of course, nothing's official until it's official, so don't hold us to that!

Although no official numbers have been released, the rumint floating through supply chain sources in Asia suggests that the initial pre-order numbers for the Samsung Galaxy S6 (and S6 Edge combined) may be double the initial pre-order numbers of the Galaxy S5 from last year.

On top of this rumor, industry intel indicates that Samsung themselves are trying to triple the production of the Galaxy S6 Edge to accommodate the increased pre-sales numbers for that device. Ultimately, if these estimates are even close to accurate, Samsung will likely have its most successful year ever, at least in the mobile markets.

LG has made it official. They shared the date and time of their next big flagship smartphone unveiling. It's obvious at least one of the devices they will reveal will be the G4. As you can see from the teaser image above, the G of their G Series is featured prominently in the promo materials. It says, “See the Great. Feel the Great,” and the “G” uses the same font as LG’s G series logo. It may also be worth paying attention to the leather-like design in the image. Perhaps the G series will move to some leather-like materials on their device?

They are going big with this one. It looks like they will be holding several different satellite press events in different parts of the world simultaneously. The event will kick off on April 28th in New York, London, Paris, and on April 29th in Seoul, Singapore, and Istanbul. We won't physically be at any of these locations on April 28th, but we will be bringing you the reports in real-time, so set your calendar!

This isn't Android related news, but it's probably going to be one of the biggest tech announcements for this mild Tuesday morning, so we felt it worth sharing here. (Plus, we know that some of you probably use Microsoft products in your daily lives.)

Check out what Microsoft announced this morning. A new Surface 3 product will be hitting store shelves in May starting at a price of just $499. This new entry in the mobile computing arena is meant to be a complete laptop replacement. It includes full Windows 8.1, along with the usual desktop applications, and has a quad-core 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor powering its core.

There are two versions of the new Surface 3. The first one has 64GB storage and 2GB of RAM for $499, and the second includes 128GB and 4GB of RAM for $599. Both tablets also include the following specs:

10.8" Full HD display at 1,920×1,280 pixels resolution

Full-size USB 3.0 port

Mini DisplayPort

A microSD card reader

Headphone jack & cover port

A micro USB charging port

Bluetooth 4.0

Three-position kickstand

Available WiFi Only and/or 4G LTE models

Either tablet will be eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 10 when it becomes available. They also include a one-year Office 365 subscription. You can pre-order any of these devices now. The WiFi only models will ship the first week of May, while the 4G LTE versions will ship June 26th.

Super Mario 64 has been around for nearly 20 years. I can remember playing this one as a kid! Back then the "3D" graphics were amazing, and the fact that I could explore the levels the way I wanted to too was a revolutionary thing. This has to be one of my all time favorite games along with just about any other title from the Nintendo 64. There have been many emulators which allow you to play these games from your Android device, but they take up precious storage space. Erik Roysten Ross has recently created a version of the games first level using Unity which can be played from your browser! Head to the link below to give it a try.

Cyanogen has been working on prepping their own build of Android 5.1 for supported devices. Some devices already have unofficial builds of CM12.1. The nightlies may be ready for release as soon as next week. The builds have already come a long way and are nearly ready. There are just a few issues with a few devices that need to be cleaned up prior to nightly releases. There will be some significant changes to CM in 12.1 including some UI changes to apps, the browser will also be updated with a new icon and vector support, there will be changes to ambient display and live display, and a few other changes will be coming as well.

The biggest change may be that CM has announced they will be doing away with unified builds for handsets. While device variants have similar hardware builds are still prone to failure especially when implementing sensors and NFC. They will now use common projects to help speed along the process of builds.

HandyGames is celebrating their 15 year anniversary by discounting 15 of their most popular games ever! These 15 games will be $.15 each for a short period of time. These games are normally provided in both ad free and ad supported versions. If you have been palying any of these games with the ads, now is the perfect time to upgrade for the ad free version.

The M9 is not necessarily a huge upgrade from the One M8. In fact it comes with a newer processor, more memory, a slightly improved camera, larger battery, and newer version of Android, but other than that it is pretty much an evolution and not a revolution. This is pretty much more of the same people. The M9 is most definitely a worthy upgrade from the M7, but the upgrade is not as much of an obvious choice if coming from the M9. Still you may not have made the decision to make the jump from the M7 to the M9. If your M7 is still working fine and keeping a good charge it may be worth waiting for the E9+ or some other device.

If you are going to be keeping the M7 you will be happy to know that AT&T will be releasing Lollipop in an OTA update. Mo Versi VP Product Management of HTC announced via twitter that they have received technical approval on the Lollipop OS, and they will be releasing the OTA tomorrow 3/31.

Say what you will about Samsung, that they copy Apple, Touchwiz, they spend too much on marketing, but one thing is they are not afraid to take risks. No, they were not the first to create the large phone as Dell took a shot at it and failed a few years prior, but they reimagined the large phone in a way that was useful for the customer.

The Note phone has quickly become one of the favorites causing even Apple to rethink their approach about large phones. After looking at the M9 I feel like the device is uninspired. It is as if HTC just mailed this device in. Yes there are some subtle changes and the M9 performs better in the gaming department, but it is hard pressed to imagine a customer feeling the need to choose the M9 over the M8. In fact there are reports that the M8 takes better pictures and capture better videos than the M9 though the M9 takes better selfies.

If I was in the market for the M9 I would just buy the M8 and save money, though I would (probably) not buy either on contract. What Samsung has done with the s6 edge is awesome and inspired. This is the Samsung that we have come to love. Despite criticism about the usefulness of the edge (I must admit I unloaded on them when I first saw renders of it) they stuck to their guns of desiring to bring something different to the market. I can not stop raving about the s6 edge because it not only stands out from the pack but changes how we view phones. The edge is the only Samsung device I can...

Useful Searches

About DroidForums.net

DroidForums.net was founded in 2009 originally dedicated for the Motorola Droid, the first Verizon Android Phone. We have since expanded our community to cover all Android Phones, Android Tablets, and Android Wearables. We discuss various topics including Android Help, Android Device Reviews, Android Apps, Phone Accessories, Android Games and more. Our ultimate goal is to be the Internet's best and largest Android Forum.